


One Chance

by orphan_account



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Developing Relationship, Friendship, M/M, Pre-War, Social Anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-26 19:03:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20394634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Orion decided that it was time to act on his feelings for Ratchet.





	One Chance

_Ratchet, if you aren’t busy…do you want to join me at the festival? No, not join…go with me? You and I go over there together? No, that sounds ridiculous. _Orion would be embarrassed into deactivation if he stumbled over his words like that when the moment came. More practice. That’s what he needed.

He balanced a large stack of datapads in his servos and made his way back to his workstation, but his optics kept wandering to one of the glass-walled study rooms nearby where Ratchet and a few other medics sat around a table, pouring over data.

The newly built data hall restricted public access much more than the previous facility. The medics who were toiling away on a special research project had been granted special permission by the head archivist herself, who was close acquaintances with the director of Iacon’s medical center.

As Orion watched Ratchet lean back in his seat and scroll through a datapad, his spark raced in trepidation. The group would only come here one more cycle, so if he wanted to make his move, he needed to do it soon.

Orion had first met Ratchet during the war when the medic patched him up after his living quarters were bombed. Considering that the attack had left most of his neighbors dead, Orion was lucky to be alive. He sustained heavy damage, but Ratchet cared for him in the makeshift ward, always making time to check on him and the other patients on a personal level, even when the place was overflowing with hundreds of mangled bots. Orion was immediately taken by how talented and good-natured Ratchet was.

Long after the war ended, Orion occasionally saw Ratchet at the oil house. That’s when he realized his feelings for the other bot were developing into something much more, something that warmed his chassis and made his processor conjure up happy images of spending time with Ratchet, getting to know him.

After endless stalling, Orion finally decided it was time to do something about it. And what better opportunity than the Nominus Festival?

As he ruminated over ways to approach Ratchet, his distraction got the better of him and he tripped over his own pedes, crashing to the ground as datapads flew everywhere. A few of his fellow archivists turned and glared in his direction as he scrambled to pick things up.

“Need some assistance?”

Orion’s spark skipped a pulse when he saw Ratchet hurrying over to him. Dazed, Orion watched as Ratchet stooped down, quickly stacking up the datapads and handing them back to him.

“Thank you,” he said, taking them with slightly trembling servos. His vocalizer wasn’t functioning very well, much to his embarrassment.

Ratchet gave him a warm smile. “Looks like you have quite the workload, Pax.”

_He even remembers my name! After all this time. _“Yes, I do,” Orion said. “It’s been, umm, busy lately. But, I volunteered for this because I wanted more practice working with ancient Cybertronian languages. The historical archives are particularly interesting to me. In fact, my mentor was trying to convince me to join an archaeologic expedition to one of the colonies and—” he cut himself off, inwardly cursing himself for rambling. He quickly asked, “What are you working on?”

Ratchet sighed. “Where to even begin,” he said. “Well, we’re trying to improve our methods for dealing with the rust plague, but so much of the data was lost in the war. And now that the disease has made a resurgence, we’re working overtime.”

Orion felt a shiver run through his chassis. There had been outbreaks in Tarn, leaving whole sections of the city quarantined. They didn’t have enough resources to deal with the problem, so the senate had sent top medics from Iacon to help. Luckily, the plague hadn’t reached Iacon and seemed to be contained for now, but its looming threat put everybot on edge.

“Good luck with your work,” Orion said. As they both stood up, he realized that he had the perfect chance to ask Ratchet about the festival right now.

But, he waited too long. Before he knew it, Ratchet patted him on the shoulder before rejoining his team.

Orion carried his datapads to his desk and lowered himself into the chair, letting out a deep exvent. He really needed to focus on his own project, but he found himself staring out of the window instead, lost in his thoughts.

***

“Your turn, Orion,” Megatron said.

Orion broke out of his trance and looked down at the board on the table.

“Sorry,” he muttered moving a tile to a random space and not really paying attention to any of the previous moves.

He was sitting in an oil house with Megatron and Ironhide, enjoying the night off at their favorite hangout. The place was crowded, a little too much for Orion’s taste, and the music was blaring.

“Long day at the archives, I take it? Are you alright?” Ironhide asked. He took a drink from his can and grimaced. “This stuff is disgusting. I miss having _real _high grade energon.”

“Do you know Ratchet?” Orion asked suddenly, fidgeting with a shiny blue tile. He’d debated whether to keep his plight a secret, but perhaps they could offer him some useful pointers.

“The scientist who lit his hab suite on fire?” Megatron asked.

“No, that’s Wheeljack,” Orion said. “Ratchet is a medic. I think you met him here once.”

Ironhide looked at Orion in curiosity. “I know him pretty well. Is he giving you trouble? That bot is the last I’d expect.”

“No, quite the opposite,” Orion said, spark thundering in his chest. “I want to ask him---”

Before he could get his words out, he was interrupted by Starscream coming out of nowhere to plop down next to Ironhide with a loud sigh, kicking his thruster heels up on the table. He took a swig from his own can of diluted energon as they all stared at him.

“What?” Starscream looked around. “There aren’t any seats left.” He nodded to the board game. “Mind if I join the next round? I had a fun time playing with you grounders last time, especially since I stopped Megsy’s winning streak on my first go.”

“Umm…that was definitely a fluke,” Megatron said.

“And the five times after that?” Starscream said, smirking.

Megatron turned back to Orion. “Anyway, what were you saying about Ratchet?”

It took a moment for Orion to gather up his courage again, especially with a newcomer. “Well, I want to ask Ratchet to attend the Nominus Festival with me,” Orion explained. “I’ve—I’ve admired him for a long time, but, I’m not sure how to go about it.”

Starscream leaned in closer, optics suddenly brightening in excitement. “What you should do is get the access code for his place. Then get some letters with neon lights and plaster a message on his wall, some type of riddle that leads him to another location. Then another and another until you finally reveal it was you.”

“That sounds…interesting,” Orion said, trying to be polite. “I was considering something less extravagant.”

“Just be bold. Ask him directly,” Ironhide said.

“I’m worried that I’m going to freeze,” Orion said dejectedly.

Megatron spoke up. “You could try it in text form,” he said. “A letter.”

At that moment, everything clicked into place. That’s just what he needed. Truth be told, he’d always been a very introverted bot, but there was also an unrelenting nervousness he felt in social situations that only got worse after the war. It was a miracle that he even met up with his friends so often at the oil house, cinema, and arena, and an even greater miracle that he was willing to go to the celebration. This method of communicating with Ratchet would put him at ease. He’d actually be able to say what he needed to without messing up.

***

That night, he was restless as he sat at his desk in his living quarters, frowning at the blank datapad in front of him. He twirled a stylus between his digits, struggling to come up with the right words. Finally, after an agonizing joor of inaction, he contacted Megatron. His friend sounded utterly exhausted, like he just got out of berth, but he helped Orion anyway. Together, they came up with what Orion hoped was a good proposal. Orion read over it a dozen times before sending it to the communication line Ironhide gave him for Ratchet.

And now, the wait.

Orion tossed and turned all night long. By the time morning came, he was so hyped up that he headed to work a full two joors early. No use lying around when he couldn’t recharge.

He sat at his workstation and jumped straight into his project to keep himself distracted until the medics arrived for the cycle.

When Ratchet finally came up the stairs, Orion felt like his spark was going to explode, especially when Ratchet broke away from the group and headed in his direction. Oh Primus, here it was. Here was the moment when Ratchet would give him an answer. Affirmative or negative, both were equally nerve-racking to Orion for different reasons, but he took a deep intake and released the tension in his chassis.

“Good morning,” Ratchet said. He leaned down and spoke at a record hall appropriate volume. “I would be happy to go to the Nominus Festival with you. Thank you for asking. And you’re a very elegant writer, by the way.”

A large smile broke out on Orion’s faceplate. “Great!” he said. “I can’t wait.” He couldn’t stop staring at Ratchet, not quite believing this was happening.

“Would you like to meet me in the lounge during break joor?” Ratchet asked. “I’d love talk to you some more.”

Orion nodded. “Of course!”

Ratchet departed, giving him that warm smile.

***

Orion met Ironhide and Megatron at the oil house again and delivered the good news. Usually he was the quiet one in the group, but he couldn’t stop talking about how thrilled he was. He went on about their time in the lounge in the record hall entranceway and how it looked like Ratchet was interested to0, how the sentiment might flow both ways. He couldn’t wait to get to know the medic better.


End file.
